The dough was rather soft and sticky, and I had a hard time trying to knead it. After a couple of minutes, I gave up wrestling with the dough and proceed to leave it to proof. (on hindsight, I should have used my bread machine to do the kneading.) I was lucky, all went well and in no time, I was rewarded with a tray of hot cross buns...I don't think I deserve it for the little effort I had put in ;)

These hot cross buns are really awesome, soft and fragrant, they are worth every penny! Deliciously scented with cinnamon, just one bite will make you feel good, and when the chocolate chips melt away in your mouth, you will feel even better.

I guess from now on, I won't be spending easter without a batch of hot cross buns :)

* Place flour, caster sugar, cinnamon, mixed spice (if using) and salt into a mixing bowl. Stir with a whisk to combine. Rub in the butter. Add instant yeast, stir to combine. Make a well in the centre, add in eggs, water, milk, mix to form a soft dough.

* Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes (or knead with bread machine or stand mixer for about 5 minutes) until the dough is smooth and elastic. Knead in the chocolate chips. Smooth dough into a round ball, place in a greased mixing bowl, cover with a damp cloth or cling wrap and leave to rise for about one hour or until dough has doubled in size.

* Divide the dough into 15 portions and roll each portion into a ball. Place the balls, almost touching, on a greased rectangular pan (if using a square pan, divide into 16 portions). Cover with damp cloth or cling wrap and leave to rise for about 30~45 minutes or until dough has doubled in size. Preheat oven to 200 degC.

* To make flour paste crosses:
Sift flour, cocoa powder into a small bowl, stir in the sugar. Add in water and keep stirring with a spoon to make a smooth thick paste. Place the flour paste into a plastic bag and snip off the corner (Note: snip off a very tiny bit will do so that the hole will not be too big). When the doughs have doubled in size, pipe a continuous line down the centre of each row of buns, length wise and width wise, to form crosses.

* Bake:
Bake buns at 200degC for about 15~16 minutes or until golden brown.

* To make glaze:
While the buns are baking, place sugar and water in a small saucepan and stir over low heat until the sugar dissolves. Transfer the baked buns to a wire rack, brush the tops with glaze. Serve warm.

Note: The dough can be made the day before up to the shaping stage, cover with cling wrap and refrigerate over night. The next day bring to room temperature leave to rise till double in size, pipe on the crosses and bake.

27 comments:

Your hot cross buns looks delicious. I like the chocolate paste topping. I notice all-purpose flour is used. Do we need to knead the dough till elastic stage like bread flour? Are those buns still stay soft the next day? Thanks! Have a nice weekend :)

Beautiful hot cross buns! Every year i also forgotto make this bun which i have bookmarked , maybe due to i am not celebrating Easter day..hehehe..Ya, about the potato buns that i made, in fact this bun is very soft on the same day, just turned little bit dry on the next day but still soft..i wish you can give it a try..maybe you need to adjust the amount of the water because mashed potato also contain water..Happy weeekend ahead to you..

Hi Vivian, no, it is not necessary to knead until window pane stage, since it is using plain flour...and actually I didnt do much kneading. The bread is best freshly baked, but the next morning, I warm them in the oven, and they taste as good, not hard or dry :)

Charminee, plain flour is not the same as cake flour...if you want to use bread flour, maybe you can try half bread flour and half cake flour. Hope this helps.

Sonia, I like the potato and bacon filling, but likely I will fall back on the tangzhong method for the bread dough. So far tangzhong gives me the best bread.

I realized that u missed out adding the milk.When do I add the milk? Together with the warm water n egg?Btw, is ur 30g egg measured without shell n after lightly beaten?Apologize for so many questions.

Hi, I use a weighing scale to measure the ingredients amount. I am not able to provide the conversion as it may not be accurate and bread recipes are not as forgiving. Hope you can find other similar recipes that uses cups/tablespoons.

Hi! I tried making this earlier today. It took me around 3 hours for the 1st rise before the dough doubled in size. By then, the chocolate chips have smeared and the dough became brown-ed. For the second rise, it took another 2 hours again. For both rise, I have covered using cling wrap. So my question is: (1) how do u achieve a perrect rounded white dough before it goes into the oven? (2) any way to quicken the rising process?

Hi it shouldn't take that long to proof the dough Did you use instant yeast or active dry yeast? Or could it be the yeast has expired? You need to smooth the dough into rounds. You can google for demo video on smoothing the doughs as I can't explain it in writing as it may confuse you.